Creating Your Future From Your Time Bank

Here is a startling thought: every moment of every day, you are creating your own future.
Try this:

Think about the two statements below and then answer the question under it.

For most people the results are the same. You feel good about the statement on the right and bad or at best neutral about the statement on the left.

There are two forces at work in the above exercise:

Most often, we are not even consciously aware of how we are reacting to things. But even so, it affects our current reality. Being exposed to colors and words or thoughts that impact you negatively can make you uncomfortable and spoil your mood. This obviously ‘colors’ everything else you are doing at that moment. If it persists, it becomes your life!

We are all driven every second of the day by the things around us and the words and thoughts that we expose ourselves to. Yes, I said we expose ourselves! Every one of us controls how we spend our lives. Every second that we allow ourselves to be exposed to things that depress our mood has an accumulated negative effect on our lives. Every second spent negatively is a not just a second wasted and spent forever, but potentially a destroyer of other seconds of your life. Why would I say that? Consider this: a second spent that creates negative stress or any other kind of physical or mental damage may shorten your life and cost you seconds. If you accept the possibility that this may be true then you will also accept the possibility that, a second spent thinking thoughts that create positive emotions or doing things that are good for your body can add seconds to your life!

Okay. So what we are doing every second of every hour of every day of our lives is spending seconds. Not unlike how we manage our money, the seconds we spend can either have a negative or positive effect on our bank account of life!

Every second we spend is creating either a positive, neutral or negative future. How do you feel about the last few seconds you just spent? Did they add to your ‘bank account of life’?

My mother used to say to me “look after the pennies and the dollars will look after themselves”. Life is like that! Like making a decision about what to do with a penny, it is easier to decide what to do with the next second than with your entire life. If you spend each second in a way that produces a positive effect, then the bank account of your life will overflow.

Constantly stressing out about what we did with the last few seconds of our lives is probably not such a good idea either. So, how about a compromise? What if we just try to be a bit more aware each day of the thoughts we think and the surroundings we expose ourselves to? If we catch ourselves spending our seconds in a negative way then we have the opportunity to change what we are thinking or doing. If we catch ourselves spending those seconds in a positive and empowering way, then we are energized and rewarded through self-affirmation.

Trying to control and plan your life, as a whole is daunting for most of us. I think my mother was trying to tell me that looking after things in small bits is easier than trying to resolve everything in my life all at once. I can think of a rainy day as grey and depressing or I can think of it as making a beautiful sound on the roof as it nourishes and cleanses. Which thought makes me feel better? Which thought is a better way to spend seconds from my bank of life?

Dr. Robert Allen wrote in “Know How” to be Rich

“As you prepare yourself and guard yourself, and are frightened and worried about anything you don’t want, by focusing your attention on it and adding emotion to your thought, you are attracting the very thing you are trying to guard against.”

We are each the creators of our own futures. If you invest enough seconds in your life being or envisioning happiness and abundance, then that is what your life will be filled with. The investment will surely pay dividends!

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